This is me.

I'm beginning to think that all of life is just a journey of self-discovery, or re-discovery in my case.

As a child, I was confident, happy, secure and free to be me. It didn't even cross my mind to try and be anything or anyone else.

But along the way of pre-adolescent insecurities, hurtful ribbing & jokes of friends, and experiences throughout those teen and young adult years that served to further imprint scars of self-doubt firmly into my psyche, I had lost site of me. Walls of self defense and self-preservation built up around my fragile inner self until I no longer recognized the person in the mirror.

So the last decade and a half has been a slow but steady search for and rediscovery of that carefree, confident freedom.

I liken it to an archeological dig of Pompei.

A once thriving, vivacious city, full of excitement, life and possibility, that in the course of one tragic event was buried under ash that encrusted it deep below the surface. Year after year the city was buried further and further as the passing of time added layer upon layer of earth.

Was the city destroyed? Most would say yes.

I say, it was preserved. Preserved for the day when it would be rediscovered, by a slow, steady and methodical unveiling process.
The city may not look as it once did, but there is so much to be learned from what is uncovered.

And while it's outer appearance might not shine as brightly as in the days of it's youth, there is a mystery, allure and beauty to the ruins that the city at the acme of it's existence could not have possessed or compared with.

The uncovered pieces of the past show signs of aging but are precious and invaluable... beyond worth or measure.

Likewise are the pieces of me.